Although most are preoccupied with the general election right now, impeachment is STILL on the table in OUR hearts and minds, and just after November 4th we are on it again full bore.

At the same time, YOU, our participants, have been very good sports about the admittedly many alerts for worthy progressive candidates we have asked you to help. And to thank you, that is why we want to send you a free copy of the impeachment play DVD. All you have to do is go to the page below and submit the form. The entry of a donation amount is NOT required for the form submission to go through. You can even watch the entire play from end to end on line at this same page.

Massachusetts law school Dean Lawrence Velvel will chair a Steering Committee to pursue the prosecution for war crimes of President Bush and culpable high-ranking aides after they leave office Jan. 20th.

The Steering Committee was organized following a conference of leading legal authorities and scholars from the U.S. and abroad convened by Velvel on Sept. 13-14 in Andover, Mass., titled “The Justice Robert Jackson Conference On Planning For The Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals.”

“If Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and others are not prosecuted,” Velvel said, “the future could be threatened by additional examples of Executive lawlessness by leaders who need fear no personal consequences for their actions, including more illegal wars such as Iraq.”

[Note for TomDispatch Readers:To listen to a podcast in which Tom Engelhardt discusses this article, click here. In addition, dial-up users will now find a better option for listening available to them.]

The Impeachment That Never Was...
Story & painted pumpkin illustration by Kathy Luttkus

I ‘impeached’ George Bush in my backyard, fueled by the belief that only elbows – and not impeachments – should be kept off the table. The process wasn’t hard. I purchased a can of peach halves (in heavy syrup), picked out a pumpkin at the farmer’s market, painted on a dumb facial expression, bought a gray wool suit from a thrift store, found a red, white and blue polyester tie on the dance floor of a Libertyville chili cook-off, and scored some Mickey Mouse cufflinks on eBay.

I accomplished in two hours tops what our representatives couldn’t do in five years. All 34 vertebrae of a good and sturdy spine aided the creation of the impeached pumpkin. But in the end, it was a little testicular fortitude that accomplished the task, even though I am a woman.

A scary precedent is being set by not impeaching a guy like George Bush. A majority of Americans agreed that Congress should impeach Bush if Americans were wiretapped without the approval of a judge. The 2006 Democratic takeover of the House and Senate meant – according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – that people were calling for a "new direction." But the Democrats didn’t keep their pledge for a change of course in Iraq, just as George Bush didn’t make good on his promise that the economy would grow. By 2007, the Democrats preferred the beatitude about inheriting the earth to being called peacemakers, whose only reward is to be deemed children of God. For them, regaining power mattered above all else.

Donald Trump told Wolf Blitzer on CNN on Wednesday that Bush should have been impeached for lying us into a war, and that he was surprised Nancy Pelosi hadn't done it. This was the first time CNN had invited a guest on to say that, even though it's been a majority position in America for years. And they didn't invite Trump on to say it; Trump caught Blitzer by surprise and challenged the host on his dishonest defense of Bush.

(AFP) - Property mogul and diehard Republican Donald Trump told CNN on Wednesday that President George W. Bush misled the US into the Iraq War and should have been impeached when the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.

"I was surprised that she didn't do more in terms of Bush and going after Bush," Trump said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, referring to Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"It ... just seemed like she was going to really look to impeach Bush and get him out of office, which personally I think would have been a wonderful thing."

Trump, 62, said Bush misled the United States into waging war on Iraq, a much worse offense than a dalliance with a White House intern his predecessor Bill Clinton was impeached for in 1999.

On the other side sat the nation's top bank executives, who had flown in from around the country, lined up in alphabetical order by bank, with Bank of America Corp. at one end of the table and Wells Fargo & Co. at another.

It was Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Treasury headquarters. Messrs. Paulson and Bernanke had called one of the most important gatherings of bankers in American history...

With only several weeks to go, the one & only thing that will get the attention of the Democrats is to threaten to deny them your vote unless they Impeach. There is no chance of this congress (or the next) supporting or defending the Constitution unless we demand it.

If you have any illusions that they will Impeach anyone in this administration, or if you think they will have hearings with Rove or anyone else, or get us out of Iraq (as they promised during the last election), or anything else that you think your going to accomplish by continuing to do the same things that we have been doing for the last 5 years; You're as crazy as I used to be.

If you have a Representative that has not signed up for Impeachment:

Simply email your Representative & let them know that unless Congress starts Impeaching, then you will not give them any of your time or money and you're not going to vote for them.

Most importantly cc: your Senators, your local & State Democratic Party Headquarters, the DNC, the DLC & even the Obama Campaign so that everyone in the Party knows of your outrage. This step is crucial. as the Blank Vote Initiative cannot remain a secret in order to be effective. The Party, as a whole, needs to realize how disgusted you are. Otherwise, your Rep is just going to ignore you (again).
This is very simple & effective. Channel your passion to this Action & we might still have a chance. If you're waiting for Conyers to do something, it isn't going to happen unless We the People demand it!

Feral House offers this important and urgent publication of Dennis Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment this election season in two formats: an offset-printed paperback book available for the cost of $12 and a free downloadable PDF available below. David Swanson’s additional article explains how the Impeachment process is possible and necessary even after the guilty perp leaves office, and how they can be used for prosecution of crimes. Those wishing to purchase over ten copies of the printed book can obtain them at discount from Feral House directly. Please contact info@feralhouse.com for costs.

If the Bush administration is hawkish enough to attack Iran or support an Israeli attack before it leaves office, the drop in world oil prices to the $80 to $90 a barrel range may give it enough of a cushion against the consequence of skyrocketing oil prices.

The administration may gamble that a quick, tightly targeted strike against Iran's nuclear facilities would bring only a brief, modest spike in oil prices, with the price settling back down in a week's time given the apparent downward trend in world oil demand.

Charles Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has already put away over 100 criminals. Now he has his sights set on his biggest target yet: George W. Bush

Fabled attorney Vincent Bugliosi, who successfully prosecuted 105 of 106 felony jury trials, is most famous for his prosecution of Charles Manson and “family,” which led Bugliosi to write about the Tate/ La Bianca murders in his book Helter Skelter. The book, which has sold over 7 million copies, is the best selling true-crime book in publishing history. Two of his other books, And the Sea Will Tell and Outrage, about the O.J. Simpson trial, also reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. This year, he published perhaps his most controversial book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, in which he lays out his case as to why the 43rd president of the United States should be brought to justice.

Bugliosi will be appearing Oct. 10 at the Poinsettia Pavilion in Ventura.

VCR: Can you give us the summary of the case that you make against the president in your new book?

Vincent Bugliosi: I present evidence that proves, certainly, my opinion and an opinion of many, beyond all reasonable doubt, that Bush took the nation to war in Iraq on a lie under false pretenses and therefore under the law. He’s guilty of murder for the deaths of over 4,000 young American soldiers [who] have died so far fighting his war in Iraq.

After we were hit on September 11 2001, we were in a state of national shock. Less than six weeks later, on October 26 2001, the USA Patriot Act was passed by a Congress that had little chance to debate it; many said that they scarcely had time to read it. We were told we were now on a "war footing"; we were in a "global war" against a "global caliphate" intending to "wipe out civilisation".

2. Create a gulag

Once you have got everyone scared, the next step is to create a prison system outside the rule of law (as Bush put it, he wanted the American detention centre at Guantánamo Bay to be situated in legal "outer space") - where torture takes place.

3. Develop a thug caste

The years following 9/11 have proved a bonanza for America's security contractors, with the Bush administration outsourcing areas of work that traditionally fell to the US military. In the process, contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been issued for security work by mercenaries at home and abroad.

The Steering Committee of the Justice Robert Jackson Conference On Prosecution of High Level War Criminals plans to demand the immediate impeachment of George W. Bush if he issues any last minute pardons covering himself or any of his subordinates. The president can be impeached and convicted even after leaving office.

The Steering Committee has released the following statement:

The presidential pardon power must not be distorted to include the power to self-pardon the president, or to pardon any staff or contractors of the executive branch, including the vice president, for crimes authorized by the president. The unconstitutionality of self pardons is discussed at length in "Pardon Me? The Constitutional Case Against Presidential Self-Pardons," by Brian C. Kalt in the Yale Law Journal, December 1, 1996: http://www.jstor.org/pss/797310

A self pardon by the President for himself or those who carried out his illegal orders to commit war crimes, said the Steering Committee of the Robert Jackson Conference, would make a mockery of the rule of law. It would, in fact, largely put an end to the rule of law. It is frankly inconceivable, said the Steering Committee, that the framers, who sought the rule of law instead of kingly tyranny, could have intended this.

The Steering Committee noted that Bush’s commutation of the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who helped carry out Bush’s plans, suggests the possibility of an attempted self pardon by Bush in the future. Also, the famed journalist Stuart Taylor has suggested a self pardon covering war crimes committed by Bush and his colleagues. A self pardon covering Bush and/or his subordinates, however, would require an immediate impeachment and conviction of the culprits in order to disqualify them from holding any U.S. office in the future and to avoid setting an awful precedent for future presidents to pardon their own crimes and those of subordinates.

The Steering Committee of the Justice Robert Jackson Conference On Prosecution of High Level War Criminals plans to demand the immediate impeachment of George W. Bush if he issues any last minute pardons covering himself or any of his subordinates. The president can be impeached and convicted even after leaving office.

The Steering Committee has released the following statement:

The presidential pardon power must not be distorted to include the power to self-pardon the president, or to pardon any staff or contractors of the executive branch, including the vice president, for crimes authorized by the president. The unconstitutionality of self pardons is discussed at length in "Pardon Me? The Constitutional Case Against Presidential Self-Pardons," by Brian C. Kalt in the Yale Law Journal, December 1, 1996: http://www.jstor.org/pss/797310

A federal appeals court declined yesterday to order current and former White House aides to testify before a House committee about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, leaving the next Congress to decide how aggressively to pursue the constitutional showdown.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the dispute over the role of politics in the 2006 dismissals would not be "fully and finally resolved" by the time the 110th Congress gives way.

The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday.

Police Superintendent Terrence B. Sheridan revealed at a legislative hearing that the surveillance operation, which targeted opponents of the death penalty and the Iraq war, was far more extensive than was known when its existence was disclosed in July.

The department started sending letters of notification Saturday to the activists, inviting them to review their files before they are purged from the databases, Sheridan said.

"The names don't belong in there," he told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. "It's as simple as that."

According to newly released military documents, the Navy applied lawless Guantánamo protocols in detention facilities on American soil. The documents, which include regular emails between brig officers and others in the chain of command, uncover new details of the detention and interrogation of two U.S. citizens and a legal resident – Yaser Hamdi, Jose Padilla and Ali al-Marri – at naval brigs in Virginia and South Carolina.

The documents were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School and the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Guantánamo was designed as a law-free zone, a place where the government could do whatever it wanted without having to worry about whether it was legal," said Jonathan Freiman, an attorney with the Lowenstein Clinic at Yale. "It didn't take long for that sort of lawlessness to be brought home to our own country. Who knows how much further America would have gone if the Supreme Court hadn't stepped in to stop incommunicado detentions in 2004?"

ST. LOUIS -- Last week's vice presidential debate was really a junior presidential debate, in which Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin worked the issues with all the rhetorical passion and ideological positioning that we have seen in the dust-ups between Barack Obama and John McCain.

But there was one point at which Biden and Palin actually discussed what they might DO as vice president.

And Palin's response was sobering.

As a biographer of Dick Cheney and the author of a history of presidential power, I've spent the past few years not just pondering but worrying about the current vice president's determination to expand the authority and reach of his office -- and in so doing to tip the balance of the separation of powers in favor of a supercharged "unitary executive."

The State Department has sponsored the sale through its appointment earlier this year of former Under-Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz to the State Department's International Security Advisory Board. Wolfowitz is also Chairman of the US-Taiwan Business Council, which includes a number of U.S. military contractors as members.

Experts warned the approach is laden with financial pitfalls, since it may be impossible to find independent contractors who do not have a vested interest in which debts to buy and the price at which they buy them. The companies hired to identify and buy the bad debts will have to make decisions that affect the same firms whose shares they own. In some cases they might effectively be buying up their own bad debts.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. plans to hire five to 10 asset-management firms as Secretary Henry Paulson establishes the government's new office for handling the financial bailout, a Treasury official said.

The department will also add about two dozen new employees, a mix of bankers, lawyers, accountants and others, the official said today on condition of anonymity. The Treasury's first attempt to hold an auction to buy troubled assets from financial firms will take at least four weeks to set up, said the official.

The 'suitcase girl' who discovered $800,000 in cash and ignited a political scandal across South America - then capitalised on it to forge a career as a Playboy pin-up - has relived her moment of glory in a Miami courtroom.

María del Luján Telpuk, 28, an Argentinian former airport security officer, is testifying in court about the moment she intercepted a suitcase and provoked a row between the governments of Argentina, Venezuela and the US. Claims of high-level corruption, cover-ups and vendettas have followed and commentators have dubbed the scandal 'Maletagate'; maleta is Spanish for suitcase.

When the Supreme Court ruled in June that detainees at Guantánamo had the right to challenge their detention in U.S. government court, the justices said that after more than six years of legal wrangling the prisoners should have their cases heard quickly because "the costs of delay can no longer be borne by those who are held in custody."

But nearly four months later, as the Bush administration has opened a new defense of its detention policies in U.S. federal court, none of the scores of cases brought by detainees has been resolved by any judge.

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